


Take My Time

by bluereadingdolphin



Category: Kaleidotrope (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant?, F/F, Give Hal a girlfriend 2k20, I mean technically yeah, Pining, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:26:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26661403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluereadingdolphin/pseuds/bluereadingdolphin
Summary: Just as she’d resigned herself to her fate of ending up on the floor, strong arms wrapped around her shoulders to catch her, and as she opened an eye to see who it was, the smiling face of Sam the quarterback came into view.I wrote this in like five hours in almost one go so I apologise if it's a messThanks to the Kaleidotrope server for motivating me love y'allEm I hope I did them justice
Relationships: Drew/Harrison (Kaleidotrope), Hal (Kaleidotrope)/Sam the Quarterback (Kaleidotrope), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Take My Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PetrichorIllusions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetrichorIllusions/gifts).



> I have barely checked this so if there's spelling mistakes or whatever please let me know

The desk was covered in the most tangled mass of wires Hal had ever seen. Green, red, blue and black lines crossed each other in an indecipherable pattern which gave her a headache to just look at . How Drew had ever managed to set this up was beyond her, and she suddenly regretted not paying a little more attention. There was so much stuff too - it was going to take at least three trips to get this all back to the studio. Sighing, she rolled her sleeves up and both literally and metaphorically got stuck in.

"Oh for -"  
Another knot had somehow appeared in the wires while her back was turned. At this rate she was never going to get out of this damned hall. Harrison and Drew had very briefly stopped by earlier, wearing matching dopey smiles, but she'd sent them away pretty quickly when they spent about two minutes gazing at each other instead of actually doing anything to help. Rolling her eyes at the memory, she stood up to get that other knot, and promptly tripped over.  
Just as she’d resigned herself to her fate of ending up on the floor, strong arms wrapped around her shoulders to catch her, and as she opened an eye to see who it was, the smiling face of Sam the quarterback came into view. A blush rose to Hal’s cheeks which she very resolutely told herself was just the blood moving from her fall and absolutely nothing to do with anything else.  
“You okay?” Sam asked, as Hal stood back up.   
“Yeah...just...tripped over a wire. It’s fine.” She pushed her hands into her pockets as an awkward silence filled the room. “Why...are you here?” She asked finally, desperately willing the blood to come back down from her face.  
“Oh, I saw some lights were still on in here and I wanted to check if someone was still in! People forget to turn the lights off sometimes and that’s bad for the environment so…I wanted to make sure!” Sam smiled brightly, and Hal blinked at her for a moment.  
“That’s. Alright then. I’m just...clearing up these wires.” She indicated to the pile of equipment which she’d managed to tidy up somewhat, at least.  
“Did you want some help with that? It looks like there’s a lot of stuff, that’s gonna take a while to get back to the studio.” Sam smiled, and something inside Hal lit up.  
“You don’t...have to…” She protested weakly, but Sam shook her head.   
“No, it’s fine! I’ve not got anyone to be with anyway!” Sam looked around at everything, still smiling. “So where do we go from here?” 

Once everything was finally, finally, packed up into the boxes, they managed to distribute them so it would only take one trip.   
“Thank you so much for helping me out with this, this would have taken me ages if I had to do it alone.” Hal sighed, shifting the box on her hip.   
“Of course! It’s no problem!” Sam headed out of the room, Hal trailing behind her.   
“I was sorry to hear about your wide receiver.” Hal said, and immediately regretted it. Now why had she said that? Sam froze for a second, then her smile returned.   
“It’s...well, it is what it is. No use worrying about it now.”  
“I suppose.”  
The rest of the trip was silent.

Once the boxes were stacked up in the office, Hal breathed a sigh.   
“Thank you again for helping me.”  
“Not a problem! Did you need any help unpacking things?” Sam asked, leaning against the doorframe.  
“It’s fine, I’ll get Drew to do it tomorrow.” Hal answered. “I’m going to get a drink now and sleep in tomorrow.”  
“Ah, I can’t do that.” Sam sighed. “I’ve got a football game tomorrow, I need to be up early.”  
“Oh, yeah. The football game.” Hal definitely remembered that there was a football game. She sure did go to those.   
“Can I expect to see you there?” Sam asked, smiling faintly.  
“Uh. Yeah! I was planning to go. To the football game.” What on earth had possessed her to say that. She did not have plans to go to the football game. She had planned to lie in, actually. But here she was. Well, she had some idea of why she’d said that. It had something to do with warm brown eyes, a bright smile and a feeling of safety but she shut that thought down before it could get much further.   
“Amazing! I’ll see you there!” Sam left the room, and Hal sat down with her head in her hands. This was not the time for this to be happening. Well. It’d be fine. Probably. 

***  
The football game was okay, actually. It was way too early and the crowds were far too loud but Sam grinned at her when they won and she got to eat good (and maybe a little garbage) food. So she was going to call it worth it. She went back to the studio to clear everything out, and found it tidy, along with a box of samoas and a note reading “Hey, I’m sorry for bailing on you yesterday. Enjoy the cookies ~ Drew”. She smiled down at it, took the cookie home and didn’t think about anything for a while. 

The next time Hal saw Sam it was late, and she was tired again. Drew and Harrison had run overtime and as much as their love was adorable, she would have loved it if they could stick to the schedule a little better. Her writing project had kept her awake until far too late the night before and she just wanted to get home so that she could sleep. She was just about ready to collapse from exhaustion.   
“Hal!” Sam’s voice echoed across the quad, as she hurried towards her.   
“Sam! Hey, I - uh - haven’t seen you in a while.” She hadn’t been avoiding her to avoid dealing with things. Absolutely not!”  
“Yeah, I never got to thank you for coming to the game.”  
“Uh huh.” Hal swayed on her feet a little, and Sam’s arms flew up to hold her shoulders again.   
“Hey, you okay there?”   
“I’m just...tired.” She blinked a couple times, became very aware of Sam’s arm around her shoulder and didn’t think about it any more than that.   
“Well, let me walk with you for a bit, just to make sure nothing happens.” Sam smiled again, distractingly, and Hal just nodded. 

The walk wasn’t as quiet this time. Sam filled the air with small talk about the training she’d just come back from, and the weird food her roommate kept buying, and anything else. Honestly, Hal was kind of fading in and out of consciousness and Sam’s bright voice was the only thing really keeping her awake.  
Without her noticing, they’d arrived at the block of flats Hal lived in.   
“Hey, d’you live somewhere near here?” She asked, looking up at Sam in tired confusion.  
“Eh, not really. It’s fine though, I wanted to make sure you were going to make it here okay.” Sam paused. “Well, I’ll see you around!” Then she wandered out of the building, back out into the night. Hal made it up to her room and collapsed asleep almost immediately. She dreamed of warm summer nights and an arm around her shoulders. 

They started walking together regularly after that night. In the sense of - they walked home together and nothing else. Sam would be heading back from football practice, and Hal would just have finished a broadcast. It became a comfortable routine, filling in nights which before were lonely and cold. Sometimes she’d even go to the football games, although she still didn’t know exactly what was happening down on the field. It felt safe, like a moment of breathing while wading through the stresses of college and running most of the programs on the college radio network. She was not looking forward to the next dance. The sock hop was enough to organise, even without the added issue of one of her hosts cancelling about an hour before the broadcast. Although she supposed that the ensuing romance was enough to make up for it, and Kaleidotrope’s ratings had only increased since then. That was work talk though, and around Sam she could forget that for the fifteen minutes it took to walk to her flat. It was nice. And therefore she’d do all she could to keep it that way, and not make it weird. So she didn’t make it weird, and she built comfort around a person again. 

It had started to snow. Hal didn’t particularly like the snow, but Harrison did and by extension so did Drew. So she was dragged out on a walk through a crisp layer of white, dressed up in a coat and gloves as Harrison threw half hearted snowballs.   
"So Hal." Harrison started, and she sighed.  
"Yes."  
"How's your love life." He punctuated this statement with very aggressively wiggling his eyebrows, and she rolled her eyes.  
"Non-existent." She shrugged, and Drew shook his head.  
"Didn't I see you walking back with Sam?" He asked, and Harrison spun around to look at her, snow swirling around him.   
"Drew! When was this?"  
"I don't know, last week?"  
"HAL! I saw you walking back with her maybe a month ago is this a regular thing?" His eyebrows were moving again and she groaned.   
"It's not - it's not like that. We're just friends."   
"Real good friends huh?" Harrison giggled to himself, and Drew smiled.   
"No! Just. She's nice."  
Harrison just stared at her blankly, and she's going to chalk that blush up to the cold.   
"Really? Hal you remember talking to me when me and Harrison weren't together yet? Recognise anything about what you're saying?" Drew's voice was filled with suppressed laughter. Hal looked at him, looked at Harrison, and covered her face with her hands.  
"Look. Okay. I might like her a little. Or a lot. But she doesn't feel the same way and I'm happy to stay as a friend."  
"You talked to her already then! Come on, this is important stuff in your love life!" Harrison almost seemed to be dancing at this point.   
"Well. I haven't spoken to her. But. I can just tell."  
"Hal!"   
"No!"  
"You've got to talk to her!"  
"I don't. Want to?"  
"Not a reason."  
"I'll. I'll talk to her. At some point. Maybe."  
Harrison glared at her, and she shook her head.   
They dropped the conversation after that in favour of a snowball fight. 

An extremely well aimed snowball hit her in the back as she was running, and she tripped. Snow rushed up to meet her and then strong arms were wrapped around her waist again and she was looking up into Sam's honey brown eyes. Harrison whooped somewhere behind her and she made a mental note to kill him later. She didn't think about it, and wrapped her arms around Sam's neck. For a long second, they just looked at each other, and then Hal's body moved almost of its own accord and then they were kissing. Sam's arms tightened around her waist, and Hal leant into her. When they pulled apart, Harrison and Drew had mysteriously vanished, although Hal's eyes were still fixed on Sam's.   
"I was wondering if we'd ever get to doing that." Sam smiled her wonderful, bright smile.   
"Well. I didn't want to -" Hal cut herself off, shook her head and buried her face in Sam's coat.   
"Hal?"  
"Mhm?"  
"D'you want to go to Kishi's? We could get hot chocolate or something?" Sam asks, and Hal takes her hand.   
"That sounds great."


End file.
